Bobby Thomson, R.I.P.

The creator of perhaps the most iconic moment in the history of baseball has died:

Bobby Thomson, who hit the famed “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” that won the 1951 National League pennant for the New York Giants, has died. He was 86.

Thomson connected off Brooklyn ace Ralph Branca for a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning at Polo Grounds in the decisive game of a best-of-three playoff.

The homer and broadcaster Russ Hodges’ ecstatic call of “The Giants win the pennant!” remain one of the signature moments in major league history.

A three-time All-Star as an infielder and outfielder, Thomson hit .270 with 264 career home runs and 1,026 RBIs from 1946-60 with several teams.

Even if you’re not a baseball fan, you’ve probably heard Russ Hodges’ call:

This was before my time, but I was a Giants’ fan when I was a kid. Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Juan Marichal were my heroes, and I knew the history of the Giants franchise like the back of my hand. I always thought it incredible that what many would judge to be baseball’s defining hit came just three years before baseball’s most extraordinary catch (by Willie Mays off the bat of Cleveland’s Vic Wertz in the 1954 World Series), by two men who were teammates (even though Thomson had been traded to the Milwaukee Braves before the 1954 season).

Both tremendous home runs, to be sure. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t also lift up Kirk Gibson’s home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Sick, injured, limping up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with 2 out and one man on, he worked an 0-2 count to 3-2 before hitting it over the fence.

Gibson’s homer can be very nicely super-imposed over Roy Hobbs’s fictional home run in The Natural. In fact, Charles Kuralt did so the following Sunday on CBS’s Sunday Morning.

When I visited the Hall of Fame, the one artifact I wanted to see was Thomson’s bat.

And, as the Phillies are working hard to sweep the Giants, let’s not forget the “other” walk off Series-winning home run (which I have never seen–had my head inside my pillow case and still cannot watch the replays): Joe Carter’s blast off Mitch Williams in 1993.